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McWane India Private Limited (MIPL) valve and hydrant, machine tooling and Time Square teams located in Coimbatore, India celebrated National Safety Week on March 5-12, 2018. They kicked off the event with a safety flag raising led by MIPL Senior Vice President K. Shanmugham on March 5.

Several activities were planned for the week including special speeches by managers and shop floor team members on the importance of National Safety Week. During the week they held safety themed demonstrations, a vehicle emissions camp, safety training, and knowledge sharing with other industries. A total of 45 vehicles were tested at the Time Square location to insure they met the required environmental standards and an eye camp was conducted for 180 team members.

Team members competed for prizes for the best safety slogan and safety demonstration and best safety photo and drawing. Team members not only enjoyed themselves, but they learned lots of safety tips during the weeklong event.

We are pleased to report that nine MIPL team members participated in the 2018 Coimbatore Trail Run. The Marathon with a Difference event was held on January 21 in Coimbatore, India. After crossing the finish line, runners said they felt a sense of accomplishment, pride and an overwhelming sense of joy.

The goal of this annual race is to help achieve the highest standards in health, safety and well-being for all and creating awareness on crucial social issues.

Congratulations to this year’s runners for not only finishing the race, but making a difference in the community.

On a recent trip to India, McWane Chairman Phillip McWane and Chief Executive Officer Ruffner Page had the opportunity to see firsthand the McWane Services Private Ltd. (MSPL) operations that support McWane companies worldwide. They were impressed by the quality and support provided by each of the teams and the collaborative effort between MSPL and the McWane divisions in the U.S. They toured the Design, Product Development, IT/Help Desk, and Sales Support Services operations and discussed the various services with MSPL team members. There is potential for future expansion of these services to other McWane divisions that are not currently using these services.

The tech team currently supports Synapse, Zinwave, and Nighthawk and the goal is to expand these services to the Indian market. This is an example of how McWane teams 10,000 miles apart can work together to pool their strengths and develop products for both the U.S. and Indian markets. The tech team demonstrated the use of the iron mesh and the Multihawk for Phillip and Ruffner as well as the proposed plans for introducing these products to the Indian market. Phillip and Ruffner were pleased to learn that MSPL plans to open a remote office in Bangalore, India. Additional labs that will work on remote metering solutions, condition monitoring, and water solutions are also planned for the future.

Phillip and Ruffner also toured the valve plant and the valve testing and tooling facilities. The valve plant was set up in a record 6 months and is already supplying valves not only to South America and McWane Gulf, but has also entered the Indian market as well. The valves have been well received in the Indian market and we should see an uptick in sales in India in 2016 of the resilient gate, air release, check, and butterfly valves. In 2016, MSPL plans to expand the sizes offered and introduce and sell the metal seated and knife valves as well.

The two-day visit to Coimbatore ended with a dinner hosted by the MSPL team in honor of the visiting senior executives from the U.S.

Continuing the McWane tradition, the MSPL local team members in India have been personally contributing to the communities and charitable causes in and around the Coimbatore area. Last year, they decided to collectively identify a few organizations that needed help.

To that end, the MSPL Team took on a new project to help support the needs of Families For Children (FFC), a non-profit non-sectarian organization that exists to fulfill the needs of children and young adults, many of which have physical and/or mental disabilities. There are 300+ children, mostly orphans, in FFC’s care center at Podanur (a suburb of Coimbatore) which is primarily funded by philanthropists from Canada, the USA, and Australia, but the large number of children often stresses their finances.

MSPL Design Department team member Latha Ramachandran has sacrificed her personal time over the last few years supporting this organization. This year, Latha was joined by Sudhir Ravindramohan, Damodaran Murugan, and Shanmugham Kumaraswamy. On April 4, the entire MSPL team came together to contribute time and money to the children at FFC. The team collected and purchased rations, clothes, books, toys, and walkers for the children.

In addition, 25 team members spent time with the children playing games, reading stories, listening to music and dancing. It was obvious to everyone that a little time and support was all that was needed to bring happiness to the children. The two hour event was followed by a scrumptious lunch for the children and their caretakers. After the event, the MSPL team discussed the immediate needs with FFC management so the next program can be structured to support those needs. Some of the needs identified were a dining room, school kits for the children on campus, and school furniture.

The entire MSPL team was excited to have the chance to give back to the community and support the underprivileged children. They had a sense that they were giving themselves to something greater than themselves.

Cricket is an immensely popular sport in India, and is also just as popular with the MSPL team. McWane Services Private Ltd had its inaugural edition of the MSPL Cricket World Cup (Soft ball cricket) on Saturday December 13, 2014. The selected venue for this sporting event was the cricket ground at Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT). Three teams comprised of team members lined up with team names of SSS (Sales Support and Synapse), Dynamic Dudes (Design and Product Development) and McWinners from the Valve Manufacturing Division (VMD).

All team members and their families were invited and there was a great turnout. The tournament was organized into a full day event composed of three league stage matches and a final featuring the top two teams. Safety precautions were taken to ensure that players and spectators were well hydrated with refreshments, and a first aid kit was on standby. A soft ball was also used to ensure that there was no case of physical injury to players.

The day progressed with Team SSS and Team Dynamic Dudes edging out the McWinners to enter the finals. In an intense and winner takes all final, Team SSS inched ahead of Team Dynamic Dudes to win the inaugural edition of the MSPL Cricket World Cup.

The individual Man of the Match awards was given away by Financial Controller D. Muruganandham and Head of Marketing & Business Development TS Chidambaram. The winner and runner rolling trophies and medals were presented by chief guest Dr Sambath, Physical Education Director of Coimbatore Institute of Technology (CIT).

It turned out to be a good outing for the teams. MSPL entered the playing field as opponents, but came out stronger in their friendship and camaraderie. Overall, it was a Saturday well-spent for players and families alike.

We are proud to announce that McWane Services Private Limited (MSPL) inaugurated the Valve Manufacturing Division (VMD) in Coimbatore, India. The facility has the capacity to produce 50,000 valves per year and has its own CNC machining centers, coating plant, assembly and testing machines. The work on this facility commenced in February 2014 and was operational within 6 short months.

Most of the machines are operational with plans to commission the testing machines by August 15. The products produced at this facility will service the growing Indian water and wastewater industry, and will allow us to provide ISO valves for Latin America as well as certain valve components for McWane Gulf. All of the castings will be acquired from local foundries.

Attending the inauguration on behalf of McWane were Mike Keel, Gopi Ramanathan, Chris Nichols, Ray Schofield, John McCreary, AJ Bowman, Wade Oakes (Synapse), Max Felix, and Sasi Pillai. Kudos to Kumaraswamy Shanmugham and his energetic VMD team for achieving this within such a short time frame. Thanks, also, to Arne Feyling and Ray Schofield who provided the necessary technical assistance to make this plant a reality.

With this valve plant in operation, McWane has firmly set its foot in Asia to service the Indian subcontinent.